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Irish recovery underway, but more inclusive growth and job creation needed, says OECD

Ireland’s economy is now showing encouraging signs of recovery from the financial crisis, but more must be done to reinvigorate growth and create the jobs that will get the country back to full health, according to the OECD.




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Local strategies for youth employment: a LEED Project

Endorsing the OECD’s Action Plan for Youth at the OECD’s annual Ministerial Meeting in Paris in May 2013, ministers underlined the need to focus attention on the most disadvantaged youth.




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Spain’s labour market reforms on track but more assistance needed for young jobseekers, says OECD

Spain has taken courageous steps to strengthen its labour market. Recent reforms have helped create jobs and should further boost competitiveness and employment in the years to come. But additional efforts are needed to boost competition in product markets and to improve assistance to job seekers, particularly young people, according to a new OECD report.




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Project: Measuring the potential of green growth: Indicators of local transition to a low-carbon economy

This LEED project aims to to define key indicators of area-based transition to a low-carbon economy. The objective is to define measurable indicators at regional/local level that can inform over time of transition to low-carbon economic and industrial activities.




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Workshop: Potential of social enterprises for job creation and green economy - how to stimulate their start and development?

The last decade has seen considerable policy attention to the social economy and its contribution to employment, in particular as regards the inclusion and empowerment of vulnerable workers and the provision of appropriate working conditions.




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Switzerland needs to improve its approach to mental-health issues in the labour force, says OECD

Switzerland needs to do more to help people with mental disorders find a job or stay in work, according to a new OECD report.




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OECD Youth Action Plan: Options for an Irish Youth Guarantee

This report on seeks to provide guidance on the design and delivery of a Youth Guarantee in Ireland based on the experience of other countries in designing guarantees or other comprehensive policy packages to help youth find productive and rewarding employment.




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UK needs to tackle high cost of mental-ill health, says OECD

Mental health issues cost the UK around GBP 70 billion every year, or roughly 4.5% of GDP, in lost productivity at work, benefit payments and health care expenditure.




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OECD LEED-Cedefop 2nd Green Skills Forum 2014 (Paris, France)

LEED and Cedefop organise the second edition of the Green Skills Forum which will bring together experts in innovation, employability and skills development and lessons from work conducted by the OECD, Cedefop, and other organisations on the implications of the green economy for skills development and training policies.




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10th Annual Meeting of the OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Development (Stockholm, Sweden)

In partnership with the Swedish Public Employment Service, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), Swedish Ministry of Employment and the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES), LEED held the 10th Annual Meeting of the Forum on Partnerships and Local Development in Stockholm 23 April – 25 April, on the theme of ‘job creation just ahead: building adaptable labour markets’.




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Matching Economic Migration with Labour Market Needs

How can governments ensure that migration and free movement of workers contribute to meeting the labour market shortages that are expected to arise over the next 50 years? How can societies better use the skills of their migrants? What lessons can non-European OECD countries offer Europe, particularly regarding labour migration management? “Matching economic migration with labour market needs” addresses these questions.




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OECD maps location of skilled U.S. workers and the employers who seek them

U.S. employers are demanding skilled workforces, but are not always able to find a local supply, says a new OECD study looking at Job Creation and Local Economic Development.




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Shifts in migration underline need for policy reform, says OECD

The increasing number of people moving within the European Union is driving the rise in migration registered in OECD countries, after several years of decline caused by the crisis. High skilled migration and humanitarian movements to OECD countries are also increasing. Migration policies need to keep pace with these changes, according to a new OECD report.




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LEED Flash December 2014

The OECD LEED Programme has a quaterly newsletter to diffuse the current news on employment and local development




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Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) 2015 Annual Conference

Third Annual Conference on the theme of "Fiscal Policies and the Green Economy Transition: Generating Knowledge – Creating Impact" held at the University of Venice from 29 through 30 January 2015. The press release is available.




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New approach needed to tackle mental ill-health at work, says OECD

Health and employment services should intervene earlier, involve key stakeholders and ensure they work together in order to help people with mental-health issues find work and stay in a job, according to a new OECD report.




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NEET Youth in the Aftermath of the Crisis (OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working papers, N°164)

This paper presents an overview of the situation of youth in OECD countries since the financial crisis, describing the characteristics and living conditions of young NEETs. It provides data on income-support policies for young people, and summarises available evidence on the impact of interventions that aim at improving the social, education and employment situation of the most disadvantaged youth.




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Early gender gaps drive career choices and employment opportunities, says OECD

Education systems have made major strides to close gender gaps in student performance but girls and boys remain deeply divided in career choices, which are being made much earlier than commonly thought, according to a new OECD report.




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Business brief: Nestlé needs YOUth

At Nestlé, we have a long tradition of recruiting young people directly from schools or universities. We invest in them, build their capabilities and develop their professional career. We do so while embracing diversity of cultures, traditions and opinions.




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OECD Ministers reinforce importance of investment for strong, green and inclusive growth

The OECD’s Annual Meeting at Ministerial Level reinforced member governments’ support across a broad range of key OECD work.




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Are we getting it right? The importance of assessing and anticipating skill needs

This blog post looks at the importance of assessing and anticipating skill needs as recent empirical literature warns about the negative impact that skills mismatch can have on individuals and economies as a whole.




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The importance of acquiring and disseminating skills needs information

Agreeing on skill needs is fundamental to develop a coherent response to skills imbalances. This can only be achieved if information is disseminated to all stakeholders in a pro-active way. For this, in turn, there is the need for the developers of skills anticipation exercises to engage their audience more effectively




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OECD Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting (14-15 January 2016)

On 14-15 January 2016 the OECD will host a Ministerial meeting on Labour and Employment, and a Policy Forum on the Future of Work.




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OECD and Italian government step up cooperation on boosting jobs and local development - Renewal of the OECD LEED Trento Centre's mandate

The OECD and the Italian government are stepping up cooperation to ensure effective implementation of local development strategies to boost jobs, encourage entrepreneurship and increase social inclusion. An agreement, to be signed in Rome on 1 December 2015, will renew the mandate of the OECD Trento Centre for Local Development and establish a satellite office in Venice.




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OECD LEED Webinar Series on "Local economic resilience and adaptability to long-term challenges" - Part One

The webinars enabled serious discussion on the concept of ‘local economic resilience’ in an informal setting that facilitates interaction and questions. The format featured presentations from policy experts and a roundtable discussion with the audience.




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Further reforms needed to tackle growing risk of pensioner poverty

Recent reforms have made pension systems more financially sustainable and pensioners have higher living standards than ever before. But future generations are likely to find their pension entitlements much less generous than today’s and many may face a serious risk of pensioner poverty, according to a new OECD report.




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Why do we need to measure skills better? Better indicators for better policies!

Being able to directly measure all the above aspects would be extremely useful but economists and analysts usually face severe data limitations (e.g. small sample size, data comparability, measurement error etc.) and are, in many instances, forced to use second-best proxies to describe skills and build indicators.




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OECD LEED Webinar Series on "Local economic resilience and adaptability to long-term challenges" - Part Two: Resilience in Practice

The webinars will enable serious discussion on the concept of ‘local economic resilience’ in an informal setting that facilitates interaction and questions. The format will feature presentations from policy experts and a roundtable discussion with the audience.




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Youth unemployment in Tunisia: The need to invest in and activate skills is greater than ever

Investing in Youth in Tunisia most important than ever, and the still relevance of the last Investing in Youth review 2014.




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The role of cognitive skills in explaining wage differentials between socio-economic groups

Average wages can vary markedly between socio-economic groups (gender, native- and foreign-born; high-skilled and low-skilled parents; workers of different ethnicities; age). These differences between groups of workers contribute to high overall wage inequality.




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Mark Keese speaks to the Worklife Hub about OECD’s new initiative on the Future of Work.

Openness to change and a continuous questioning of the way we work are the keys to being prepared for the Future of Work. This advice comes from Mark Keese, Head of the Employment Analysis and Policy Division at the OECD, and we catch up with Mark following the OECD's Future of Work Forum in January 2016.




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A New Initiative: Adapting to Changing Skills Needs

Today the OECD is launching a new project with JP Morgan and Chase Foundation to measure and analyse skills needs in a harmonized way across countries. Experts from various countries and fields of discipline are meeting at the OECD to discuss methodological issues involved in developing a cross-country indicator of skill needs. By informing policy, this new data tool will make strides towards addressing skill shortages.




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Local responses to refugee crisis: from initial reception to longer term integration

The OECD LEED Programme launches this "Call for Initiatives" to extract what local authorities and other actors know works, what the new scenario is demanding and how equipped they are to respond. We are interested in learning from the experiences of EU member countries, the wider OECD area as well as other countries.




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Sweden in a strong position to integrate refugees, but support for the low skilled needs to be strengthened

Sweden should address housing shortages, begin integration activities early, and improve the support for those with low skills to speed up the effective integration of refugees, according to a new OECD report.




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Project: Skills for greener jobs in a local labour market context

This study will analyse how selected local areas/industry clusters identify the specific skills needed to support green growth and how related skills policies and practices can be made more effective in supporting their provision and accelerating transition to a low-carbon economy.




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Refugees are not a burden but an opportunity

When nearly a million Vietnamese “boat people” fled their country in the late 1970s and early 1980s and sought refuge elsewhere, they were typically seen as a burden and often turned away. Eventually, many were allowed to settle in the US. Most arrived speaking little or no English and with few assets or relevant job skills. Yet Vietnamese refugees are now more likely to be employed and have higher incomes than people born in the US.




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Green shoots of recovery in entrepreneurship beginning to appear

The post-crisis recovery in entrepreneurial activity remains mixed across countries, but new data released today by the OECD provides tentative signs of a turning point, with trends in enterprise creation rates pointing upwards in most economies.




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Defining “green skills” using data

New research finds that green jobs use high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills more intensively compared to non-green jobs, and tend to be less routinized. They are also heterogeneous in terms of skill level.




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What skills are needed for tomorrow’s digital world?

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are changing profoundly the skill profile of jobs. To thrive in the digital economy, ICT skills will not be enough and other complementary skills will be needed, ranging from good literacy and numeracy skills through to the right socio-emotional skills to work collaboratively and flexibly.




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Lending volumes and credit conditions are improving for SMEs, but many firms continue to struggle to obtain financing that meets their needs

Lending volumes and credit conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have gradually improved, according to a new report from the OECD, but demand-side obstacles such as a lack of financial knowledge are contributing to holding back a stronger recovery.




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Adapting to changing skill needs

The conference on Adapting to changing skill needs was an OECD event supported by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. This event showcased the OECD Skills for Jobs database, providing detailed information about the skill needs of the labour markets in all EU countries and South Africa.




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Costa Rica has made major socio-economic progress but more efforts needed to reduce inequality and poverty

Costa Rica enjoys relatively high life satisfaction levels, but should do more to develop a more inclusive and sustainable economy, according to a new OECD report.




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New OECD data expose deep well-being divisions

New well-being data released today expose deep divisions in our society along fault lines of age, wealth, gender and education. The OECD’s latest How’s Life? report shows that while some aspects of well-being have improved since 2005, too many people are unable to share the benefits of the modest recovery that is underway in many OECD countries.




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Lithuania needs to address its demographic challenge and boost job quality

Lithuania’s economy has recovered strongly from the global financial crisis, with GDP, wages and employment levels back up to their pre-crisis levels. The country should now focus on tackling the demographic challenge of a fast-declining population and making the job market more inclusive, according to a new OECD report.




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Korea should speed up job market and social protection reforms to strengthen inclusive growth

Korea’s economy has progressed rapidly over the past 40 years, catching up with the level of well-being in most OECD countries. It now needs to continue and speed up the reforms of its labour market in order to strengthen its social safety net, create better quality jobs and boost inclusive growth, according to a new OECD report.




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Strong labour relations key to reducing inequality and meeting challenges of a changing world of work – OECD & ILO

Unions and employers, together with governments, can play a major role in making growth more inclusive and helping workers and businesses face the challenges of a changing world of work. Good labour relations are a way to reduce inequalities in jobs and wages and better share prosperity, according to a new OECD-ILO report.




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Action needed to tackle stalled social mobility

As income inequality has increased since the 1990s, social mobility has stalled, meaning that fewer people at the bottom have moved up while the richest have largely kept their fortunes. This has severe social, economic and political consequences, according to a new OECD report.




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Countries should focus on labour market policies to help refugees and improve coordinated actions to tackle illegal immigration

Migration flows to OECD countries have dropped slightly for the first time since 2011, with around 5 million new permanent migrants in 2017, down from 5.3 million in 2016. This trend is mainly due to a significant decrease in new asylum applications, with 1.2 million applications in 2017 compared to 1.6 million in 2016, according to a new OECD report.




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'The Magnificent Seven': A Rehash Of An Oft-Seen Plot

Antoine Fuqua's "The Magnificent Seven", has nothing to boast of. It is a remake of a remake that owes its roots to Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic, "Seven Samurai".




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'Trolls': Bright And Cheerfully Appealing

"Trolls"; Directors: Mike Mitchell, Walt Dohrn; Cast: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Christine Baranski, Russell Brand, Gwen Stefani, John Cleese, James Corden and Jeffrey Tambor.